The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

A Brittany shop with shuttered windows dates from July or August 1893.

A Brittany shop with shuttered windows, Terra Foundation for the Arts

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1365).

Images

Subject

Site

A Brittany shop with shuttered windows, Terra Foundation for the Arts

Brittany, France.

Technique

Technique

A Brittany shop with shuttered windows, Terra Foundation for the Arts

Expressive brushwork and clear colours distinguish this watercolour. Black and red dominate the colour scheme. The warm dark red of the shawl, a purple bag, and pale blue, are set off by rich washes of black. The technique shows the Whistler's increasing freedom in the medium. There are four or five layers of washes and details in the window. White body colour was mixed in to the tints of pink and green in the window on the left, the goods painted with fine, spiky brushwork. The precision of these little pots and bottles contrasts with the free washes elsewhere, with colours running into one another. The background is lightly washed with beige and grey, with several areas of paper left bare. The shutters were painted over the figures on the left. A grey headless figure with a spotty yellow dog in the centre were left unfinished.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1943: sold to Colnaghi's, London art dealers, 27 March 1943;
• 1943: sold to Villiers David (1906-1985), London, 3 May 1943;
• 1985: sold at auction, Christie's, New York, 6 December 1985 (lot 185A) as 'A Brittany Shop with Shuttered Windows', and bought by Knoedler, New York dealers;
• 1986: bought by Daniel J. Terra (1911-1996), for the Daniel J. Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago;
• 1992: Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago.
• Transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago.

For further details see MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1365).

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1365) as 'A Brittany shop with shuttered windows'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1987.
• An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1988.
• American Painters in France, 1830–1930, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1989.
• Regard sur James Abbott McNeill Whistler (James Abbott McNeill Whistler at a Glance), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, 1994.
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995.
• Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1998; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1999.
• The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1999.
• Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2000.
• Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, 2001.
• Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, 2005-2006. [brochure]

SALE:

• Christie's, New York, 6 December 1985 (lot 185A) as 'A Brittany Shop with Shuttered Windows'.

Journals 1906-Present

• Tedeschi, Martha, and Britt Salvesen, Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, Museum Studies, vol. 24:1, 1998, pp. 4-135, at pp. 78-79, 83, repr. fig 104.

Websites

• Terra Foundation for the Arts website.